MEASURING THE MASTER RACE Measuring the Master Race Physical Anthropology in Norway 1890-1945 Jon Røyne Kyllingstad http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2014 Jon Røyne Kyllingstad This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne. Measuring the Master Race: Physical Anthropology in Norway, 1890-1945 . Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/ OBP.0051 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit http://www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781909254541#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0 All the external links were active on the 22/12/2014 unless otherwise stated. Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at http:// www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781909254541#resources ISBN Paperback: 978-1-909254-54-1 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-909254-55-8 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-909254-56-5 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-909254-57-2 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-909254-58-9 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0051 Cover image: Measurement of upper arm length as demonstrated in Rudolf Martin, Lehrbuch der Anthropologie , p. 163. Image in the public domain. All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK). Contents List of Illustrations vii Foreword xi Introduction xiii 1. The Origin of the Long-Skulled Germanic Race 1 2. The Germanic Race and Norwegian Nationalism 17 3. The Germanic Race and Norwegian Anthropology, 1880-1910 35 4. Norwegian Nationhood and the Germanic Race, 1890-1910 65 5. Racial Hygiene and the Nordic Race, 1900-1933 87 6. Halfdan Bryn and the Nordic Race 115 7. The Schreiners and the Science of Race 133 8. From Collaboration to Conflict: The Racial Survey of 1923-1929 159 9. Science and Ideology, 1925–1945 193 10. The Fall of the Nordic Master Race 221 Selected Bibliography 233 Index 249 List of Illustrations 1 Brachycephalic short skull, dolichocephalic long skull. Image from Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau, Histoire générale des races humains (Paris: A. Hennuyer, 1889), pp. 216-17. 5 2 Ripley’s racial classification scheme. Table from William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe. A Sociological Study (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. 1899), p. 121. 13 3 Craniometrics: A ‘diptograph’ and a ‘craniophor’ used by Justus Barth to make drawings of skulls. Images from Justus Barth, Norrønaskaller: crania antiqua in parte orientali Norvegiæ meridionalis inventa: En studie fra Universitetets Anatomiske Institut (Christiania: Aschehoug 1896), Figs. 1 and 2. 42 4 Map showing the distribution of skull types in Norway based on Carl Oscar Eugen Arbo’s research, as presented in William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe , p. 206. 45 5 Otto Ammon’s outlook on society. Graph from Justus Barth, Norrønaskaller , Figs. 1 and 2. 49 6 Two maps showing the distribution of conservative votes in the Parliamentary election of 1897 (right) and the areas with a majority short-skulled population (left). From Andreas M. Hansen, Norsk folkepsykologi: med politisk kart over Skandinavien (Kristiania: Jakob Dybwads Forlag, 1899), p. 1. 55 7 Illustration of the issue of racially-mixed populations. From Rudolf Martin, Lehrbuch der Anthropologie in systematischer Darstellung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthropologischen Methoden (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1914), p. 94. 61 viii Measuring the Master Race 8 Chart of human body proportions from Rudolf Martin, Lehrbuch der Anthropologie , p. 326. 92 9 Measurement of upper arm length as demonstrated in Rudolf Martin’s Lehrbuch der Anthropologie , p. 163. 93 10 Halfdan Bryn at his desk. Undated photo by unknown pho- tographer. © Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universi- tet’s library, Trondheim. All rights reserved. 114 11 A graph by Bryn showing the distribution of cephalic indices in an admixed population. From Halfdan Bryn, Møre fylkes antropologi , Skr. D. n. Vidensk. Selsk. MN kl. (Kristiania: I kommission hos J. Dybwad, 1920), p. 70. 121 12 Bryn’s map of areas of anthropological isolation. From Halfdan Bryn, Menneskerasene og deres utviklingshistorie (Oslo: Det Norske studentersamfund, 1925), p. 123. 128 13 Professor of Anatomy Kristian Emil Schreiner, painted by Astri Welhaven Heiberg in 1949. © painter’s estate, all rights reserved. 136 14 Drawing of skull. From Kristian E. Schreiner, Zur Osteologie der Lappen II (Oslo, ISKF/Aschehoug, 1931), p. 75. 137 15 The Tysfjord skull. From Kristian E. Schreiner, Crania Norvegica II (Oslo: ISKF/Aschehoug 1946), p. lxvi. 144 16 Alette Schreiner showing children an animal skull. Undated photograph by unknown photographer. © University of Oslo. 148 17 Family from the Sami community of Tysfjord. From Alette Schreiner, Anthropologische Lokaluntersuchungen in Norge, Hellemo (Tysfjordlappen) (Oslo: ISKF/Aschehoug, 1932), p. xvii. 162 18 ‘East Baltic’ women from Norway. From Alette Schreiner, Anthropologische Lokaluntersuchungen in Norge. Valle, Hålandsdal und Eidfjord , Skr. D. n. Vidensk. Akad. MN kl.1929 (Oslo: I kommisjon hos Dybwad, 1930), pp. 12, 13, 63-65, and taf. vii. 163 19 Form used to survey recruits. From Halfdan Bryn and Kristian E. Schreiner, Die Somatologie der Norweger , Skr. D. n. Vidensk. Akad. MN kl (Oslo: I kommisjon hos Dybwad, 1929), p. 3. 165 List of Illustrations ix 20 Various types of calipers for the measurement of various parts of the body. From Rudolf Martin, Anthropometrie (Berlin: Springer, 1929), pp. 4-5, and Adolf Basler, Einführung in die Rassen und Gesellschaftsphysiologie (Stuttgart: Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, 1925), p. 22. 167 21 ‘Alpine racial type’ depicted in Kristian E. Schreiner, Bidrag til Rogalands Antropologi , Skr. D. n. Vidensk. Akad. MN. Kl. (Oslo: I kommisjon hos Dybwad, 1941) 175 22 ‘Pure’ or ‘mixed’ racial type? Portrait from Kristian E. Schreiner, Bidrag til Rogalands Antropologi, chart V. 175 23 Martin’s eye colour chart (a) and Fischer’s hair colour palette (b). Image from Rudolf Martin, Lehrbuch der Anthropologie , pp. 212, 218. 176-77 24 Photograph of a Sami couple in traditional clothes. Image from Alette Schreiner, Anthropologische Lokaluntersuchungen in Norge, Hellemo (Tysfjordlappen) (Oslo: ISKF/Aschehoug, 1932), p. 11 and taf. ii. 189 25 Portrait exemplifying a ‘Nordic-Lapp mixed type’. Image from Jon Alfred Mjøen, Racehygiene (Oslo: Dybwad, 1914), p. 177 197 26 Children of German women and the African soldiers who participated in the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1923. Photograph from Jon Alfred Mjøen, Racehygiene , p. 188. 199 27 Man from the Setesdal valley. Portrait from Alette Schreiner, Anthropologische Lokaluntersuchungen in Norge. Valle, Hålandsdal und Eidfjord , Skr. D. n. Vidensk. Akad. MN kl.1929 (Oslo: I kommisjon hos Dybwad, 1930), p. 63 and taf. iii. 203 Foreword The work that resulted in this book began with a master’s thesis submitted to the Department of History at the University of Oslo in the spring of 2001. This was later rewritten into the book Kortskaller og langskaller ( Short Skulls and Long Skulls ), published in Norwegian in 2004 and now reworked and expanded into this English edition. While working with the first version of the book I was affiliated to the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (the TIK centre), the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History and the Forum for University History at the University of Oslo. I also spent some brief, but important periods of time in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Oslo, where Anatomy Professor Per Holck gave me access to the anthropological book collection and database. The writing and publication of Kortskaller og langskaller received financial support from the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Organisation, the TIK Centre, the Forum for University History, the Norwegian Historical Association and the Fritt Ord Foundation. The translation and publication of the English edition is financially supported by NORLA (the Norwegian Literature Abroad Foundation) and by Norsk Teknisk Museum, Norway’s national museum for science, technology and medicine. It was Erika Hagelberg who first came up with the idea of an English version. She also helped me approach potential publishers and has given invaluable advice, help and criticism during the process of rewriting the book for a non-Norwegian audience. This book is not an English translation of the original Norwegian work. Most of it has been thoroughly rewritten for a new audience and to incorporate new material and new perspectives. Since the publication of Kortskaller og langskaller , I have done more research on topics related to the xii Measuring the Master Race history of Norwegian physical anthropology and racial science. My doctoral thesis Menneskeåndens universalitet ( The Psychological Unity of Humanity ) dealt with the political context and institutional framework of Norwegian physical anthropology and adjacent disciplines, such as archaeology. After receiving my doctoral degree, I was involved in writing a multi-volume work on the history of the University of Oslo. This gave me new insight into the institutions under whose auspices physical anthropological research was undertaken. Insights from both the doctoral work and the university history project are incorporated into this book. A number of people over the years have contributed their ideas, constructive criticism, professional and psychological support, among them Trond Haug, Christine Myrvang, Kjartan Soltvedt, Tore Tennøe, Jorunn Sem Fure, Knut Kjeldstadli, John Peter Collett, Ole Anders Røberg, Per Haave, Hege Roll-Hansen, Ketil Gjølme Andersen, Anne Vaalund, Nils Roll-Hansen, Ingvild Kyllingstad, Ageliki Lefkaditou and Ottar Dahl. I am also very grateful to Tim Challmann for his invaluable linguistic help with this English-language edition. I am particularly indebted to Robert Marc Friedman at the IAKH (UiO), who was my supervisor for many years; to Torben Hviid Nielsen, Arve Monsen and Fredrik Thue who, through critical reading and thoughtful feedback, have contributed immensely to my work; and last but not least to Erika Hagelberg, without whom this book would never have seen the light of day. Finally, I am greatly indebted to Ragne, Tora and Ingvild, who have had the demanding task of sharing a family life with the author during all these years. Jon Røyne Kyllingstad Oslo, 6 November 2014 Introduction The notion of a Germanic or Nordic race was a linchpin of Nazi ideology. The Nazis believed that this ‘superior race’ had the right to extend their Lebensraum (living space) at the expense of others, and they put this idea into practice with brutal efficiency. It was not the Nazis, however, who invented the concept of a superior Nordic-Germanic race. In the early twentieth century, it was common practice to rank humanity into inferior and superior races, and many saw the Nordic-Germanic race as the pinnacle of humankind. This belief was particularly widespread in nations that were considered to be of Germanic origin, such as the U.S., England, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. In all these countries there were racial ideologues who held that humankind’s progress would come to a halt unless the presumed master race was protected from racial mixing and allowed to expand at the expense of ‘inferior’ races. One important reason why these ideas were taken seriously by so many was that they claimed foundation in scientific fact. For centuries, European scholars believed that the Germanic-speaking nations of northern Europe could trace their roots back to the Germanic tribes described in ancient Roman sources. During the nineteenth century this historical notion of a Germanic people was transformed into a scientific concept of race. In numerous scientific publications, the Germanics were defined as a distinct type of human being, one characterised by a specific set of inheritable bodily traits such as blond hair, blue eyes, a tall stature and an elongated head shape. While this race was commonly referred to as ‘Germanic’ throughout the nineteenth century, after the turn of the twentieth the label ‘Nordic’ was usually favoured. Scandinavia was generally seen as the heartland and cradle of the Nordic race. In contrast to the region’s peripheral geographical and political position, therefore, Scandinavia was of primary importance in the http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0051.11 xiv Measuring the Master Race worldview of those advocating Nordic racial supremacy, especially German nationalists including the Nazis, who proved to be deeply fascinated by all things Scandinavian. Among Scandinavians themselves, the idea of Nordic racial superiority had a significant impact upon notions of national identity, and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Scandinavian scholars played an important role in creating and perpetuating the concept of a Nordic race. By imbuing the idea of the Nordic race with scientific legitimacy, these scholars also advanced its international recognition and acceptance. Measuring the Master Race focuses on the involvement of Norwegian academics in the development of a scientific concept of the Nordic race. The book charts the emergence of this idea and its scientific credibility in Norway during the nineteenth century. Individual chapters explore the shifting theories and preconceptions upon which the concept was based, how it affected national narratives and notions of national identity, and how it finally lost academic credibility in Norway during the years leading up to World War II. From the late nineteenth century and into the interwar years, Norwegian scientists undertook numerous studies of the racial composition and biological history of Norwegians. They conducted extensive surveys of the living national population, gathering data on bodily traits such as arm span, height and head shape, and comparing these measurements with similar data obtained from anatomical studies of human bones from ancient graves. Working with these comparisons, scientists developed theories about prehistoric migrations, the mixing and settlement of various primordial races, and the eventual rise of the Norwegian people. Although these researchers voiced different ideas concerning the origin and racial composition of the national population, they all agreed on the 'fact' that the Norwegian people belonged to the ancient blue-eyed, long- skulled and tall Nordic race. In retrospect, as the notion of racial superiority has lost scientific and political credibility, and the very concept of race itself has become highly controversial, these research activities may seem perplexing and preposterous. No present-day scientists claim credibility for pre- war traditions of racial science, and racial classifications based on skull measurements appear to be a flawed, racist, pseudo-scientific relic of the past. Nevertheless, the Norwegian scholars who set out to explore the racial roots of the nation with the help of calipers and rulers were Introduction xv actually mainstream scientists operating within the established scientific discipline of physical anthropology and working alongside colleagues from all over the Western world. Driven by the aim of charting human biological diversity and evolutionary history, physical anthropologists observed, measured and compared the exterior features of human bodies, and then used this data to classify humans into races in much the same way as zoologists classified animals into families, genera and species. At the peak of physical anthropology’s popularity, academics working in this discipline were considered to be the leading experts on race. If one wished to speak authoritatively about race, it was a great advantage to be an anthropologist or at least to be able to invoke the support of anthropological expertise. In order to understand how the concept of a superior Nordic race gained and lost scientific credibility, therefore, it is necessary to explore how physical anthropology became a discipline of recognised authority on racial issues. Moreover, it is important to study the changing ways that anthropologists have drawn the boundaries between science and non-science in their field of research, and to attempt to understand how this has affected the scientific legitimacy of the concept of a Nordic race. How can we explain that for a long period the Nordic race was considered to be a real entity that physical anthropologists could delineate, identify and describe scientifically? How and why did that same concept subsequently come to be perceived as a dubious ideological notion based on weak evidence and pseudo-scientific reasoning? This book helps to shed light on these questions by examining the activities of Norwegian anthropologists in their national and international historical contexts. The history of physical anthropology was characterised by processes that took place both within nations and across borders. Anthropologists in Western Europe operated on the international stage: they were connected with each other through personal and professional networks, and they presented their research findings in anthropological journals, textbooks and conferences aimed at international academic audiences. The actual research, however, was usually carried out within a national context, was often financed by national funding bodies and conducted by national research institutions, and had the principal aim of studying the racial composition and history of the national or colonial population. Thus, although the history of physical anthropology was affected by the interplay of national, transnational and international processes and contexts, the scope, subject matter and societal role of physical anthropology varied xvi Measuring the Master Race between nations. Hence the discipline’s development in one country was related, but not necessarily identical, to its development in other national contexts. Facts and viewpoints that were considered scientifically valid among anthropologists in one country, for example, might elsewhere be deemed controversial or unacceptable. In the case of Norway, the rise and eventual fall of the concept of the Nordic master race was affected but not determined by shifts in its status within the international scientific world. In order to understand these processes it is important to bear in mind the unique character of academic life in a small country like Norway. The Norwegian ‘community’ of professional anthropologists never amounted to more than three or four people, and these individuals had to go abroad to undertake training, obtain research materials, publish their research, attend conferences and participate in scientific debates. Simply because they came from a small country, Norwegian anthropologists had a particularly strong international orientation, and therefore the history of Norwegian physical anthropology and its engagement with the idea of a Nordic race must be understood in an international context. This book is not, however, a systematic comparative study, nor is it a general account of the international history of physical anthropology. Instead, Measuring the Master Race limits itself to exploring important historical connections between physical anthropology, racial science and the concept of a Nordic race in Norway and in other countries with links to the Norwegian academic community. Since there were so few Norwegian anthropologists, they worked closely with Norwegian colleagues in related disciplines. The anthropological exploration of the nation’s racial identity and origin was strongly interconnected with research being carried out in other disciplines relating to Norway’s history and culture (e.g. archaeology, philology, history). And all this research was entwined with ongoing academic, political and cultural tugs-of-war over Norwegian national identity. Measuring the Master Race traces some of these interconnections. The book examines how physical anthropological race theories, and the idea of a Nordic master race in particular, shaped the national narratives advocated by Norwegian philologists, historians, archaeologists and public intellectuals; it offers an analysis of the influence wielded by these academic debates and ideological struggles over national identity on Norwegian anthropology. Physical anthropology was also closely related to eugenics, which emerged as a significant international movement in the early twentieth Introduction xvii century. Eugenicists feared that the biological evolution of humankind had been arrested by anti-selective forces in modern society, and they called for an interventionist population policy in order to protect superior elements from being outnumbered by inferior ones. Eugenicists generally turned their attention towards individuals and families carrying those genetic traits assumed to be inferior. Some eugenicists, however, maintained that the primary goal of eugenics was to protect the superior races—first and foremost the Nordic race—against miscegenation and to help them expand at the expense of supposedly inferior races. According to these eugenicists, physical anthropology was highly relevant to eugenics, since the anthropological mapping of inferior and superior racial elements in a population was regarded as a way of assessing its genetic quality. This book elucidates the relationship in Norway between eugenics, anthropology and the concept of a superior Nordic race. Measuring the Master Race is the first broad and contextualised account of the history of Norwegian physical anthropology to be published in English. In addition to the Norwegian edition of this book, Kortskaller og langskaller ,1 a descriptive overview of the history of Norwegian physical anthropology was published in Norwegian in 1990 by the anatomist Per Holck. 2 Holck’s account was an important starting point for this book. In addition to Holck various scholars have addressed specific issues in the history of Norwegian physical anthropology. Of particular importance has been the history of early twentieth-century physical anthropological research on the Sami, the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. This research included the excavation of a substantial number of human skulls from Sami graves in northern Norway, skulls still stored in the anthropological collection at the University of Oslo. The Sami grave excavations are today generally perceived as a racist undertaking characterised by a lack of respect for the affected Sami communities; there is an ongoing debate about the future of the skulls, some of which were reburied in 2011. The topical relevance of this issue has led to a number of historical inquiries into the physical anthropological research carried out in this period. This includes work by the archaeologist Audhild Schanche addressing the controversial Sami grave excavations both in relation to her own research on prehistoric Sami 1 Jon Røyne Kyllingstad, Kortskaller og langskaller: Fysisk antropologi i Norge og striden om det Nordiske herremenneske (Oslo: Spartacus, 2004). 2 Per Holck, Den fysiske antropologi i Norge. Fra anatomisk institutts historie 1815- 1990 (Oslo: Anatomisk institutt, University of Oslo, 1990). xviii Measuring the Master Race burial costumes and as part of her involvement in the official assessment of the University’s collection of ancient Sami bones. 3 The historian Bjørg Evjen has also explored late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth- century anthropological research in northern Norway, with a specific focus on the Sami and on how anthropologists classified groups in northern Scandinavian into races. 4 The history of Norwegian physical anthropology is also touched upon by philologist Torgeir Skorgen in his general introduction to the history of racism, 5 and in a number of works on the history of eugenics in Norway. The most comprehensive of these works are those written by Per Haave and Nils Roll-Hansen, and my account of Norwegian eugenics is greatly indebted to them. However, neither Haave nor Roll-Hansen have specifically turned their attention to the relationship between physical anthropology and eugenics, which is one of the focuses of my research. 6 3 Audhild Schanche, ‘Saami Skulls, Anthropological Race Research and the Repatriation Question in Norway’, in Cressida Fforde, Jane Hubert and Paul Tumbull (eds.), The Dead and their Possessions. The Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 47-58; Graver i ur og berg. Samisk gravskikk og religion 1000 f.kr. til 1700 e. Kr. (Ph.D. thesis, University of Tromsø, 1997); ’Samiske hodeskaller og den antropologiske raseforskningen i Norge’, appendix to I. Lønnig, M. Guttor, J. Holme, et al. (eds.), Innstilling fra Utvalg for vurdering av retningslinjer for bruk og forvalting av skjelettmateriale ved Anatomisk institutt (Oslo: University of Oslo, 1998); ’Rase, etnisitet og samisk forhistorie: et forskningshistorisk tilbakeblikk’, in Jan Eivind Myhre (ed.), Historie, etnisitet og politikk (Tromsø: Institutt for historie, University of Tromsø, 2000), pp. 3-18. 4 Bjørg Evjen, ‘Measuring Heads: Physical Anthropological Research in North Norway’, Acta Borealia , Vol. 14, no. 2 (1997); ’Kort- og langskaller: fysisk- antropologisk forskning på samer, kvener og nordmenn’, Heimen , Vol. 37, no. 4 (2000), pp. 273-292. 5 Torgeir Skorgen, Rasenes oppfinnelse: rasetenkningens historie (Spartacus: Oslo, 2002). 6 Per Haave, Sterilisering av tatere 1934-1977: En historisk undersøkelse av lov og praksis (Oslo: The Norwegian Research Council, 2000); ‘Zwangssterilisierung in Norwegen—eine wohlfahrtsstaatliche Politik in sozialdemokratischer Regie?’, NORDEUROPAforum, Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur , Vol. 11 no. 2 (2001), pp. 55-78; ‘Sterilization Under the Swastika: The Case of Norway’, International Journal of Mental Health , Vol. 36, no. 1 (2007). Nils Roll-Hansen, ‘Norwegian Eugenics: Sterilization as Social Reform’, in Gunnar Broberg and Nils Roll-Hansen (eds.), Eugenics and the Welfare State: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland (Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1995); ‘Den norske debatten om rasehygiene’, Historisk tidsskrift , Vol. 59 (1980), pp. 259-83; ‘Geneticists and the Eugenics Movement in Scandinavia’, The British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 22, no. 3 (1989), pp. 335-46; ‘Eugenics Before World Introduction xix The significance of physical anthropology’s relationship with other disciplines, particularly eugenics, emerges as I chart the development of the concept of the Nordic master race. The book begins with a short account of some key events in the rise of the scientific concept of a Germanic race. In the 1830s and 1840s, Scandinavian anatomists, archaeologists, linguists, historians and ethnographers put forward a grand theory claiming that a succession of different races had migrated to Europe in prehistoric times and had given rise to the various European nations. According to this theory, a Germanic race existed that could be scientifically delineated and identified. This race was tall, blond, blue-eyed and had an elongated head shape. It was assumed to have settled in Europe during the Iron Age, established itself as a ruling caste over the previously settled populations and ushered in the development of an advanced European civilisation. This theory achieved great international acclaim and went on to have long- lasting effects on academic debates about history and national origin in Europe. Chapter 2 argues that Norwegian historians writing in the 1830s and 1840s were inspired by the idea of the superior Germanic race. These historians traced the roots of the nation back to the invasion of a Germanic Iron Age tribe and praised Norwegians for being the principal bearers of Germanic virtues. This national myth of origin was widely believed and endorsed by Norwegian historians, philologists and archaeologists in the mid-nineteenth century, but beginning in the late 1860s it was overthrown by the views of a new generation of scholars. These scholars dismissed the theory of a Germanic invasion and refused to see the nation’s history as the unfolding of psychological characteristics inherited from a Germanic race. Chapter 3 describes the establishment of a Norwegian tradition of physical anthropological research from the late 1880s onwards, and argues that the first generation of Norwegian physical anthropologists was influenced by a German and French school of research—anthroposociology— which embraced the idea of a superior Nordic race and saw the struggles between inferior and superior races as the key to interpreting history and society. This led to a revival of Norwegian ideas of nationhood based on racial determinism and Germanic racial superiority, and in chapter 4 I argue War II: The Case of Norway’, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences , Vol. 2, no. 2 (1980), pp. 269-98; ‘Eugenics in Scandinavia after 1945: Change of Values and Growth in Knowledge’, Scandinavian Journal of History , Vol. 24, no. 2 (1999), pp. 199-213.